Onteora school threat suspect pleads guilty to reduced charge

By
Patricia R. Doxsey, Daily Freeman

Thursday, March 8, 2018

WOODSTOCK, N.Y. >> The Woodstock man whose social media post last week caused a security scare and led to police officers being stationed in Onteora school district buildings pleaded guilty Thursday to a reduced charge.

Henry Reilly, 23, a former Onteora student, pleaded guilty in Woodstock Town Court to the misdemeanor of falsely reporting an incident. In return for Reilly’s plea, the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office agreed to recommend he be sentenced to probation.

The plea deal seemed to suggest the online post was not as originally portrayed, a contention supported by comments made Thursday by Woodstock Town Justice Jason Lesko. The judge at one point asked Reilly if he understood why he was charged as he was, then reminded Reilly “there is a heightened concern” in the community to threats of school violence.

“We all make mistakes,” Lesko said.

Lesko released Reilly from jail, where he had been since March 1 in lieu of $50,000 bail, pending a March 21 court appearance.

There are four school buildings in the Onteora district — the middle/senior high school on Route 28 in Boiceville; Bennett Elementary School, on the same property; and elementary schools on Route 375 in Woodstock and Route 214 in Phoenicia.

Onteora parents were notified via email and in a notice posted on the district’s website on March 1 that, “out of an abundance of caution and to provide reassurance to students, staff and parents,” arrangements were made to have a police presence at each of the district’s schools that day.

Reilly’s arrest came two days after a Saugerties High School student who praised the Columbine High School killers on social media was charged, along with his father, for weapons-related crimes.

There also have been arrests for recent threats against schools in the Dutchess County towns of Pine Plains and Hyde Park, and city of Poughkeepsie schools were closed for two days last week due to threats.

Schools across the county have been on heightened alert since 17 people were killed in a mass shooting Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. The suspect in that case, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, had been expelled from the school.